4. 1965 – The Palm Sunday Outbreak
Affecting the Midwestern and Southeastern United States between April 10–12, 1965, this event would become the second-largest tornado outbreak on record at the time as in the space of just 16 hours, it would produce a confirmed 55 tornadoes, including at least four “double/twin funnel” tornadoes. It would cut a swath of destruction from Cedar County, Iowa, to Cuyahoga County, Ohio, and a swath 450 miles long from Kent County, Michigan, to Montgomery County, Indiana.
In terms of the death and destruction it caused, the event injured 3,662 others and killed 266 people. The financial cost would be huge as it caused $1.217 billion in damages, but that is in 1965 money. Today it would be over $10 billion.
